I worked 12 hour day shifts all weekend....holy craziness! We are a rural hospital and I worked ICU and med-surg Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The craziness started friday when I flew my patient out with an uncontolled heart rate on a cardizem gtt, dvt and probable DIC. That was an interesting day...Then I had the sweetest man in ICU with bone cancer and R/O MI and had to help L&D with a set of emergent delivered 34 week twins that flew out with respiratory complications and yesterday was completely different...heres my long, unbelievable story...I will describe it the best I can to you for the full effect of the situation:)
Sunday was another one of those days. I had a patient that was declining and had a large family that was just told that she was going to die. I knew as soon as I saw her that she was not going to make it through my shift. I checked in with the patient and family often and at 1pm I went in and saw how shallow her breathing was. Her color had also changed. Her hands were now mottled. I felt for a pulse but could not feel one, she was barely breathing and I could barely hear a faint heart beat over her lung sounds. I looked around at the family and told them to say what they needed to say to her because these will be her last moments here on earth with them. They called their family to come up from the cafeteria downstairs and as soon as her son and daughter in law walked in she took her last breath. Everyone was standing around her bed as she passed...her closest friends and family. A streak of blood escaped her mouth, her grayish color turned to a more yellowish gray before my eyes and as I'm watching for anymore chest rise, a horrendous, loud vibrating noise shook the room. Then it stopped. Then another loud sound and vibration shook the room. I looked around with wide eyes to see what in the world it was...It was coming from the end of the bed. Another nurse ran in to see what it was and unplugged the bed. it got quiet for a few seconds and then bam! There it was again. I looked around and walked to the end of the bed and felt a big vibration under my feet. Everyone was looking around with wide eyes, one of the family members asked if we were going to fall through the floor. Keep in mind this is a Sunday afternoon when maintenance is on call only and we have the clinic triage right below us that is closed for the weekend. In my head I was thinking..."OMG...Lord, if you are doing this IT IS NOT FUNNY" and "OMG! WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THAT AND HOW DO I MAKE IT STOP FOR THIS POOR FAMILY!" I quickly exited the room and got the secretary to call maintenance to see if they were here doing something and alerted the charge nurse. I went back in the room and the noise had come and gone again sounding much like someone was coming up to us through the floor with a jackhammer. The noise ceased so I went out of the room to give the family some time to grieve their loss and the charge nurse comes up the stairs and tells me there was a contractor downstairs. Shelley (the charge nurse) said when she came in the door of the clinic triage room she scared the crap outta the guy as he was standing on a ladder with a large drill in his hand. She's almost yelling, "STOP, our patient died and you started drilling!". And the poor guy says "I'm done! IM DONE! I had 2 holes to drill, I'm done! They told me to come when I could to drill some holes, I'm done!" What UNBELIEVABLE timing! I apologized profusely to the family and told them what had happened. I sure wish someone would have communicated to the 2nd floor nursing staff that there would be a little work done on SUNDAY afternoon. Here I thought that heaven's gates needed some WD-40! What a day!
Isabelle49
849 Posts
OMG, you'd think someone would have notified you that the contractor would be working below your patient. Your story did give me a laugh, though.